Director Sabaah Folayan attending
Two activists have taken cameras in hand to tell the story of the Ferguson, Missouri uprising in the documentary, Whose Streets?. Following the murder of unarmed teenager Michael Brown at the hands of police, the residents of the St. Louis metropolitan area were pushed past their breaking point. In this documentary, directors Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis, who live in St. Louis, were on the front lines, confronting police units that were as militarized as if in the midst of combat, and talked to the people on the streets, people who are literally fighting for their lives and the lives of their children. This is a striking cinematic document that captures the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement, the dawn of a new era of civil rights resistance.
“The dehumanization of Mike Brown was perpetrated by his murderer, perpetuated by the media, and reinforced by violent police repression of his community. This was a modern-day lynching.” — Directors’ Statement
Director’s Biography
Sabaah Folayan: Sabaah Folayan is an activist and storyteller born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, who has a biology degree from Columbia University. In September 2014, she went to Ferguson with cinematographer Lucas Alvarado-Farrar to learn the truth behind the dramatic scenes playing out on the news. Whose Streets? is her first feature.
Damon Davis: Damon Davis is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist who lives in St. Louis, Missouri. Davis has work in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, and has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts in Brooklyn. Whose Streets? is his first feature-length documentary.
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